Rural Hospital Fairness Act
Sponsored By: Representative LaMalfa
Introduced
Summary
Preserve critical access hospital (CAH) status for certain long-standing rural hospitals. This bill would allow facilities that were CAHs before January 1, 2002 and were Secretary-certified as of December 31, 2024 to be treated as CAHs under Medicare even if they no longer meet the location-based eligibility rule, so long as they remain otherwise eligible and meet any additional Secretary criteria and state designation requirements.
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- Rural hospitals. Facilities that were CAHs before January 1, 2002 and certified by the Secretary as of December 31, 2024 could be deemed to retain CAH treatment for as long as they meet ongoing eligibility and Secretary standards.
- Rural communities. The text specifically covers facilities in counties with no other hospital, CAH, or rural emergency hospital, aiming to keep a local CAH in those areas when the listed conditions are met.
- State and federal roles. States still must designate facilities as CAHs and the Secretary retains authority to set criteria under the applicable subsection.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
1 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Keep Medicare help for rural hospitals
If enacted, some small rural hospitals would keep their Medicare critical access status. This could happen even if they no longer meet the distance rule and were not named a "necessary provider" by the state. It would apply only to facilities that were CAHs before January 1, 2002, were still certified on December 31, 2024, and, when told they lost certification, were in a county with no other hospital, CAH, or rural emergency hospital. The status would continue only while the state could still designate them and they meet any other rules set by the Secretary. This would take effect upon enactment.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
LaMalfa
CA • R
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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